What to Know About Cloud Trends and Migration

For businesses that haven’t already done so, at least not fully, there are a lot of reasons to migrate to the cloud in 2024.

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Business and IT leaders are finding that they no longer have a choice. There is a pressing need to replace on-premises legacy technology with cost-effective, flexible, and scalable solutions.

In order to keep pace with the rapidly changing business environment, cloud migration is a must.

With that in mind, the following are some things to know specifically happening in cloud computing as we look forward to the rest of 2024.

What is Cloud Migration?

Sometimes the terms cloud migration and digital transformation are used interchangeably. While the details can look different for every organization, in a cloud migration, a company is moving some or all of the data center capabilities into the cloud. Often this is to run on a cloud-based infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services, Azure, or Google Cloud.

Many companies have partially or fully transitioned to the cloud already, so this year, cloud migrations might refer more to scenarios where organizations are moving within the cloud itself. This is known as cloud-to-cloud migration.

In a study, cloud usage among respondents went up to 90%. Around 48% said they planned to migrate half or more of their apps to the cloud this year. For businesses planning such migrations, leveraging cloud migration services can provide the necessary expertise and support to ensure a smooth and efficient transition to the cloud.

Thirty percent of respondents, who came from all industries, said managing costs was going to be one of their biggest cloud-based priorities, and regulatory requirements were another one topping the list.

Also cited in that study as being relevant across the board was the need to find employees with cloud security skills. Respondents said that even in highly regulated industries like healthcare and finance, they’re struggling with bridging security gaps as they shift to the cloud.

Multi and Hybrid Cloud Environments

Now, we’re at a point where we’ve progressed far enough along in cloud computing for organizations to understand cloud-based data management doesn’t mean they have one specific infrastructure or platform they’re relying on.

Instead, it’s about having the right solution for any given job but making them work together cohesively.

The best solution isn’t always all-cloud either. For example, some enterprises have to keep using certain business-critical on-premises and legal solutions because it wouldn’t be possible, or it would be far too burdensome to adapt them to the cloud.

An estimated 90% of enterprise-level organizations are currently relying on hybrid cloud models that include on-premises, dedicated private clouds, legacy platforms, and also multiple public clouds.

Regulatory Complexity

Businesses are going to have to take a vendor-agnostic approach when they’re searching for SaaS solutions this year and going forward. With that in mind, the objective here is the reduction of both bottlenecks and blind spots.

A priority will be maintaining visibility across an increasingly complex and heterogeneous environment to get the same level of insight that’s always been needed without gaps.

Without visibility, blind spots can easily turn into weaknesses that cyberattacks exploit, and that then can cause regulatory and compliance issues.

Cost Savings

When the move to the cloud first started taking off, there was this concept surrounding it that no matter what, it was going to be cheaper than legacy and on-premises solutions. That then morphed into the misconception that the cloud is cheap. Businesses realize this isn’t the case. Businesses need the security that comes with cloud-based identity management as remote employees log in to systems and access assets from around the world.

It’s very easy to find yourself spending as much if not more with a move to the cloud. 2022 was a year where this became more significant realization, and businesses focus on cutting cloud costs.

A lot of the rising costs stem from the decentralized model of cloud computing consumption. There seems to be no sense of control as usage grows. There may be a lot of waste that can be eliminated due to duplicate spending and overhead that’s not required.

Forward-thinking solutions providers are looking at ways to help organizations have more granular views into their spending to better manage costs.

Challenges to the Multi-cloud Paradigm

Gartner predicts that by 2025, more than 90% of enterprises will be following a multi-cloud platform strategy and infrastructure. However, there are still challenges that stem from teams being able to know the multi-cloud environment on the deep level they should.

There is a skills gap that is proving to make multi-cloud models unrealistic.

It’s better and more effective in many cases to have a team that knows one platform in an in-depth way, as opposed to having a team that might know two or three platforms but not very well.

ESG and the Cloud

As digital infrastructures and transformations become an increasingly pivotal part of the modern economy as we know it, businesses are going to have to factor ESG into their cloud choices and implementations. ESG stands for environmental, social, and corporate governance.

Businesses have to think about things like their carbon footprint, how they’re treating their employees, and the adherence to growing industrial regulations, all of which can interact with the cloud.

For example, a survey commissioned by Google Cloud found that 75% of decision-makers believe sustainability is either a must-have or a major consideration when they choose providers.

Increasingly there is a realization that digital infrastructure puts a strain on resources in the environment, so companies are going to want to prioritize carbon neutrality in their cloud initiatives.

Most large and enterprise businesses are now well beyond the point that they realize they have to transition to the cloud. They’re in more advanced phases of the digital transformation where they’re accepting the challenges that come along with it and looking for proactive solutions to those issues in addition to the general concept of migration.

From cutting or limiting costs to reducing their carbon footprint, nothing is without obstacles, including cloud computing.

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Dan Dunn

Executive Managing editor

Editor and Admin at MarkMeets since Nov 2012. Columnist, reviewer and entertainment writer and oversees all of the section's news, features and interviews. During his career, he has written for numerous magazines.

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